muppets

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…these are a few of our favorite things making the rounds on the Internets of late:

Muppet Dating Advice: An awesome article on Slate explains how everyone is either a Chaos Muppet (Cookie Monster, Ernie, Grover, Gonzo, Animal, Miss Piggy, etc.), or an Order Muppet (Burt, Scooter, Kermit, etc.). If you want a happy marriage, the theory goes, you need to pair up with the opposite type — just like Kermit and Miss Piggy, or Burt and Ernie. (And if you don’t? “That’s where Baby Elmos come from.”) You have been warned.

It seems like all my friends saw THE MUPPETS this past weekend, and the fact that these are friends whose ages range from 24 – 35 is a testament to the broad and timeless appeal of Jim Henson’s legacy. I’m slightly cursing him though because I’ve had the song “Mahna Mahna” stuck on repeat in my head (and now it’s stuck in yours). I didn’t know until recently that the original song, written by Piero Umiliania, first debuted in the decidedly kid unfriendly Italian film SWEDEN: HEAVEN AND HELL. I also didn’t know that Oscar the Grouch was originally orange before the color of his fur was changed to green in the second season. The explanation given was that Oscar “went on vacation to the very damp Swamp Mushy Muddy and turned green overnight,” which is subversively disturbing if you think about it. Was that a toxic swamp filled with mutated frogs as a result of illegal chemical dumping by an evil corporation? These are the kind of hard hitting questions that Big Bird needs to be asking on Sesame Street…

Before Sesame Street, Jim Henson was on Iowa Public Television in 1969 showing viewers and children how to make puppets from everyday simple items like tennis balls, socks, spoons, and cups. I think what’s even more remarkable in this 15 minute segment is how quickly these homely and basic puppets are imbued with a unique…

In honor of Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary, Canada’s National Post has an illustrated interactive feature with 101 characters from the popular children’s show. You can scroll over each character to get their name, brief bio, and the season in which it first appeared. For some additional pun chuckles visit parody muppets, such as Barbra Streisandwich,…